EcoLur
Because of mining, 8000 ha of land areas are disturbed in Armenia, and another 1500 ha of land areas are located under tailing dumps. Around 1 billion ton wastes of mining enterprises have been accumulated, as the book entitled “Priority Issues Connected with Tailing Dumps In Republic of Armenia” says authored by R. S. Movsesyan ad A. I. Movsesyan, Chair of Prospecting and Exploration of Mineral Deposits, YSU.
“It should be noted that the accumulations of the tailing dump are the most hazardous ones, then the dumps of the cut-off grade ores and smelter slags,” the book says. The most hazardous tails are owned by Ararat gold recovery plant. Under the authors, they are classified as highly hazardous, as they are used in the heap leaching process. Then, they are followed by tails produced by lead and zinc, copper and molybdenum ore dressing plants.
For our part we would like to mention that the national report by Nature Protection Ministry “On Environment for 2002” also assigned classes of hazard to the tailing dump. Three tailing dumps were assigned first class of hazard: Ararat tailing dump owned by GeoProMining Gold Company, Geghanush tailing dump with the concentration of copper, lead, zinc and gold owned by Dundee Precious Metals Kapan Company and Nahatak tailing dump owned by Akhtala Ore Processing Plant.
Under the new Code on Subsoil, since 2011 tailing dumps are not considered to be hazardous tails and are considered as secondary deposits having technogenic origin, so they are not levied taxes on.
The authors think that the tails must, first of all, be considered as wastes and only after conducting geoprospecting and technological testing for preparability and economic evaluation, a part of these accumulations can be classified as technogenic deposits.
October 10, 2014 at 14:11